Health Care > Going on a Low Carb Diet?Related Photo
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I'm thinking of going on a low carb diet, limiting myself to 20 carbs per day.
Does it really work to go on a low carb diet, do you
really loose weight going on a low carb diet?
Please don't buy into this!
Your body NEEDS carbs so by eliminating this from your diet you are eliminating something your body requires and is designed to consume.
Think about gasoline for a car: If a gasoline is missing a component that your car needs and is designed to use, sure the car will run but after a while it will not perform efficiently and there might even be some damage caused as a result of this.
Your body is no different.
Will you lose weight? Well, you very well may, but what will happen once you start eating carbs again after stopping for months? Remember: carbs that your body can't burn gets turned into fat and your body will have a tough time digesting carbs if you avoid them for long periods of time. This means weight gain.
That being said, I'd definitely recommend completely eliminating all white flour, white rice, white pasta etc. from your diet if you want to lose weight and switch to COMPLEX carbs such as fruits, veggies and whole-grains.
These will help you lose weight as well as promote healthy Digestion (which could help with even more weight loss). Because your body works harder to digest them, you'll also naturally burn more calories!
Which brings us to the main point: What you need to do is restrict CALORIES.
I'm a 6ft tall male and I lost about 90lbs in 7-8 months by eating about 1300-1500 calories a day (mixture of complex carbs, Protein and good fats). I weighed around 285lbs and got down to about 195lbs. Now I'm around 200 since I gained a few lbs of muscle.
I began by gradually lowering my calories to 1800, then 1600 etc. until I got to between 1300-1500. You don't want to make a drastic decrease instantly.
Weight loss is all about energy in and energy out; how many calories you consume and how much you burn.
Think of a water-balloon: If you fill a small amount of liquid into the balloon and empty it, then repeat, the balloon does not grow. If on the other hand you fill the balloon with liquid and do not empty it, well you know what I'm getting at.
Does it matter if you are filling the balloon with water, juice, or milk? As long as you burn more energy (i.e. calories) than you take-in, you'll lose weight
This of course does not suggest a daily diet of 800 calories of nothing but ding-dongs and twinkys! Certain foods make your body more efficient at operating and this is a huge factor in weight loss..
Also, you don't want to eat late at night. Stick to fruits and veggies, 100-200 calories max no more than 2hrs before bedtime. This way, your body won't have to work on digesting food but rather it will simply burn calories!
Finally, they KEY FACTOR to weight-loss is serious excercise. I cannot emphasize this enough. I eventually built myself up to doing 45-60 minutes on the elliptical non-stop 5-6 days per/week. When I started excercising I felt like I was going to die after 10 minutes and needed to stop! This also adds a psychological aspect to your plan that boosts you up because you feel great after a workout on top of the physical results. Again, I cannot over-emphasize the importance of excercise!
Let me show you what I mean:
Let's say my body naturally Burns 2500 calories a day just in a normal state without any activity (this is known as Base Metabolic Rate).
I would consume 1500 calories per/day.
2500-1500 = 1000 calories defecit. It would take 3.5 days to lose 1lb.
Based on my weight, on the elliptical I would burn about 850-1100 calories per/workout. From this my calorie defecit pretty much doubled!
I'm in the best shape of my life, I feel great, I look like a totally different person and all the while I never really deprived myself because I'd set aside a cheat-day a week where I would eat a few hundred calories of junk food then work extra hard at the gym the next day.
